Corrections and new findings:
Chapter 2, page 31 (p. 6 for on-line copy) The following is additional information from the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier of August 11, 1874. "... On the fifth day of July, 1824, Mr. Bussell, with Issac, Jeremiah M., and William Frees, John Marsh, Even Hathorn, William Grant, Gotham Rollins, Hugh Alexander and Philip Spencer, started up the West Branch to cut the first logs... and camped out just above Rockabeema. ....one pine they felled on the bank of the river had a notch cut in it with forty years of wood outside the mark. Four of the men in one day cut 54 logs and rolled them to where high water would take them off... They rafted them out in 1825...."
Chapter 2, page 31 (p. 7 for on-line copy), first full paragraph - "No discovered account traces..." I have been researching to try to determine the actual crossing spot. Burnt Land Rips is the place that I wrote it crossed. That is wrong. What follows is a result of my research.
T3 Indian Purchase: Since the fire did not cross the West Branch of the Penobscot River in TAR7 WELS, it crossed some place in T3 Indian Purchase. In 1836 Issac Small surveyed all 128 lots in the township. He noted either “burnt land” or “old burnt land” or both if it existed on any lot. When he used the term “burnt land” he made no comments about tree growth. For “old burnt land” he simply wrote “small growth” or “bushes of different kinds” or “growth small mix.”
Using lots with the “burnt land” label suggested a fire path. The fire exited Hopkins Academy northwest corner across T3 IP’s south town line in lot 121, a lot west of Quakish Brook. The fire line shifted slightly east into lots 114-115, and moved north through lots 107-109, north into lots 100-102; these lot pairs are all split by Quakish Brook. Lot 102 includes the south and east sides of Quakish Lake through which the West Branch flows. West of lot 102 are lots 97 and 96, both labeled “burnt land.” They are on the south side of the river between the outlet of Elbow Lake and the inlet of Quakish Lake and mark the crossing point of the fire, which burned in lot 65 (“burnt land”) opposite lots 96 and 97. In this same general strip area lots 122, 113, 107, 102, 101, 100, and 66 are all marked “old burn.”
Once across the river, the path of the fire to the northeast was not clear, but a large block of lots (30-32, 39-42, 49-52) labeled “old burnt land” were where a fire crossed the eastern town line into Grindstone township.[1]
For all the lots in T3 IP on the south side of the river and east of Quakish Brook Small applied neither burn label.
[1]Township No. 3 Indian Purchase, 1836, surveyed by Isaac J. Small, courtesy of James W. Sewall Company
Chapter 6, page 117(p. 45 for on-line copy), second paragraph under "Rainbow Stream" The second paragraph under the header "Rainbow Stream" implies that the first dam at the Rainbow Lake outlet was built in 1869.
By accident as I read stumpage documents for T4R9 NWP at Fogler Library Special Collections my eye was caught by an August 13, 1852 T2R11 WELS contract that seemed "misfiled," and out of curiosity I read it. The agreement was between H.R. Soper of Old Town, land owner, and W.T. Pierce of Bangor, stumpage purchaser, and included the statement Soper would build a dam at the outlet of Rainbow Lake and would clear "Bean Stream"[Bean Brook] at a cost of $250. They signed the agreement August 31, 1852.Chapter 8, p.3, line 8, p.141, “Gerrick’s” should be replaced with Gerrish’s
Chapter 8, p.149 (p.14 online version) Members of their family, the Stetsons Spencers, had used it as dam tenders. The Everett Littles lived in the camp year-round for a while in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By the 1970s, it was still fairly solid, but it was not standing in the 1980s.
Chapter 11, p. 20 in online copy, p181 in printed book - the Llewellyn Boynton camp was not on the north side of Lower Togue Pond; it was on the north side of Upper Togue Pond. Reinier Beeuwkes provided the information in the form of a copy of the Peasely lease. I had originally relied on a GNP c.1918 lease list that used the name Katahdin Pond, now known as Lower Togue Pond. Upper Togue was Loon Pond at the time.
Chapter 11, p.55 - " Kelly Pond" – I have “Jones” for his first name; it should be John.
Chapter 11, p.82 - in this citation “Gerrish, Judson, and Henry Gerrish. History of Penobscot County Maine . Cleveland: Williams, Chase, 1882.” Please delete “Gerrish, Judson, and Henry Gerrish.”
Map in Chapter 4 and 9 – lower left corner in green box, change “Corryan” to Corrigan.
Additional Information:
The old cabin at the head of Fifth Debsconeag Lake was clearly in use between 1940 and 1954. Paul Firlotte who frequented that area found an old journal tucked in the wall of the camp when it was "on its last legs." Paul discovered the journal in his materials after I published the book.
The added file below has more information about Bill Moriarty.